Source: Technomic *=Technomic estimatetheir spending power and open their wallets forfood away from home.” According to a survey of2,000 pizza-eating households released by Mintelin July 2013, consumers cited taste and healthful-ness as barriers to frozen pizza growth. Mintel alsostates that, although black consumers and familieswith kids are more likely to eat frozen pizza, thesetwo groups will likely grow only modestly between2013 and 2018.

Overall Restaurant Growth

On the whole, the restaurant industry continues
to enjoy modest growth and is the nation’s second-largest private-sector employer, according to NRA
research. The NRA projects restaurant-industry
sales of $660.5 billion for 2013, an increase of 3.8%
from 2012’s figure of $636 billion and equal to 4%
of the U.S. gross domestic product. This was the
fourth straight year that sales went up for the restaurant industry. Meanwhile, restaurant job growth
in 2013 continued to outpace national employment

The Healthcare Challenge

Like it or not, the Affordable Care Act keeps
moving forward, but its full impact on restaurants remains unclear. The White House in July
delayed the employer mandate—which requires
large employers to provide healthcare coverage
to workers or pay a penalty—by a year, allowing
businesses additional time to prepare for it.

Once the employer mandate kicks in, restaurants that average 50-plus “full-time-equivalent”
employees will be considered “large employers”
and must offer healthcare plans to those employees or face penalties. Companies with fewer than
50 full-time employees won’t have to offer the
benefits or pay penalties, but other parts of the
law still apply. For example, existing healthcare
plans must comply with new ACA regulations, and
all employers covered by the Fair Labor Standards
Act must provide written notice to their employees
about government-run marketplaces.

Regardless of their size, operators will need to
familiarize themselves with the details of the law,
including its definition of full-time employment and
how to determine the status of seasonal employees or
those with varying hours. They should be prepared to
fulfill the law’s requirement for tracking and reporting
employee data. And they’ll have to make sure they
know what constitutes an “affordable” healthcare
plan and what could trigger a penalty.